Alameda High Twelfth Grader Ranks in Mobile App Contest

James Fong, a 12th grader at Alameda High School, will receive a new Samsung smartphone after ranking fifth in the company’s 2012 Mobile Application Boot Camp contest.

“The goal for the Samsung Mobile Application Boot Camps is to inspire a new generation of engineers,” said Dale Sohn, President of Samsung Telecommunications America. “The students that participated are learning a timely and relevant skill that has an opportunity to influence not only their lives, but the lives of others as well. It is encouraging to see the creativity these students have and the desire to empower change through technology.”

According to Mr. Fong’s contest application, his mobile app, “Muse-See-Em,” is designed “to give museum goers of all ages a fun way to interact with a museum’s exhibits by completing treasure hunts while visiting. The treasure hunt’s levels of difficulty will vary by age to appeal to both children and adults. The user will be able to select from participating museums across the United States and the world!”

He also said that his mobile app was inspired by two years of volunteer work at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco and his family’s many visits to museums on family vacations both in and outside of the United States.

Grand prize winner Joseph Romano, a tenth grader at Arlington High School in Arlington, Massachusetts, received a $20,000 scholarship for his “Better4All” volunteerism mobile app.